Documenting your continuous professional learning
Being a teacher can also mean being a learner. You need to be able to make observations and capture reflections on what you learn as part of your teaching practice, as well as what the outcomes for children have been. Continuous professional learning is an important part of any vocation, especially so when nurturing the futures of so many young...
Is it wrong to love the children you teach?
When studying to become an early childhood educator, I always remember a lecturer stressing the importance of maintaining a professional distance from becoming too close to the children you teach. It was unprofessional to develop strong feelings for children. I always struggled with this as I am a feelings person. I often asked myself “is it wrong to love the...
Using macrons on Storypark
Cultural sensitivity and understanding are big considerations these days, and rightly so. One way that you can include this in your teaching practice is to make sure that you spell words correctly including making use of the appropriate macrons. Macrons are used to signify the length of vowels in many different languages. It’s unlikely your computer is set up to type...
Learning in a puddle
One of my clearest childhood memories is of a friend and I walking to school and coming across a gigantic puddle. It was like a magnet that drew us closer and closer. I remember us looking at each other, no words were needed as we both knew what we had to do. We jumped in that puddle, splashing each other,...
Mentoring advice part three – your words
In our third and final article focusing on advice imparted on educators by their mentors, we have a wonderful collection of your own words and personal stories. We have no doubt that they will inspire you in different ways and we hope you find something that speaks to you. One mentor told me to look at my teaching and learning philosophy regularly as...
Mentoring advice part one – Working with children
We had the most overwhelming response to our recent give away where we asked you to share with us the one piece of advice or lesson learnt from a mentor that has influenced your teaching the most. We compiled your entries into lists, defined by category and filled with all of the best advice given to our Storypark users by their mentors...
How to get the most out of your study tour to Reggio Emilia
No one in Reggio wants to teach others how to “do school.” What we seek to do rather is to try and deepen our understanding, together with others, of why it was possible in Reggio Emilia for an (educational) experience founded after the war, to grow and consolidate with time… What we want to do is look together for...
Moving from rostered duties, to a key child approach
To duty roster or not to duty roster, that is the question? During my 14-year teaching career, I have taught in a learning service WITH assigned duty rosters, and am currently working in a learning service WITHOUT duty rosters. When I started in my current learning service and was told there were no rosters I felt a little uneasy. “How...
Alternative job description for early childhood teachers
You must have a warm, smiling face that makes every child feel special and loved. You must be able to laugh at jokes that you don’t understand, or you don’t find funny. Child humour can be a confusing minefield to navigate. You will preferably have a little bit of quirkiness. If a child requests that you be the captain of...
Mentoring advice part two – Leadership
Recently we asked you to share with us the one piece of advice or lesson learnt from a mentor that has influenced your teaching the most. In the second of our articles on mentoring, we focus on leadership advice. There are some great words of wisdom here, we hope that one or two of them strike a chord with you, and...